Why Does a Three-Hour Problem Lead Naturally to a Thirty-Year Commercial Relationship?

Why Does a Three-Hour Problem Lead Naturally to a Thirty-Year Commercial Relationship? If you can now earn a good living solving people's financial problems without capturing their assets, why are you still making surrender of the assets a condition of helping them? A person walks into a financial planner's office with a problem. Perhaps they … Continue reading Why Does a Three-Hour Problem Lead Naturally to a Thirty-Year Commercial Relationship? →

NatWest Wants 500,000 Investors. I Suggested Part of the Model Almost 20 Years Ago.

Democratising Coutts investment capability is a good idea. Calling a product-distribution pathway financial planning would not be. There is something rather familiar about NatWest's ambition to grow the number of its retail customers who invest with the bank from around 170,000 to more than 500,000. I know because, almost 20 years ago, I was sitting … Continue reading NatWest Wants 500,000 Investors. I Suggested Part of the Model Almost 20 Years Ago. →

Wake Up, Consumers: Stop Sleepwalking Through Your Financial Future

What if financial planning started with your life, rather than your investments? I recently joined Kevin Whelan on the WealthBuilders WealthTalk podcast for a conversation about something much bigger than pensions, investments or financial products. It was about who should ultimately be in control of your financial life. The answer sounds obvious. You should. Yet … Continue reading Wake Up, Consumers: Stop Sleepwalking Through Your Financial Future →

Know What You’re Receiving Before You Act on It

We regulate the difference between information, education, guidance, promotion and financial advice. Perhaps it is time we taught the public the difference too. BIG Checker doesn’t just ask “Is this true?”It asks “What is this, who benefits, and why should you believe it?” More than half of people who acted on financial advice they encountered … Continue reading Know What You’re Receiving Before You Act on It →

Who Said Financial Planning Needed a Product Licence?

Why the trailblazers of financial planning are moving from the regulated 1% to the human 100% Most financial planners did not enter the profession because they wanted a licence to sell products. They entered because they wanted to help people. They wanted to help people make better decisions, avoid costly mistakes, prepare for uncertainty and … Continue reading Who Said Financial Planning Needed a Product Licence? →

The Salary Trap: What Is a Graduate Really Signing Up For in an AUM Advice Firm?

The Graduate Advice Trap: Your Salary, Their Assets, Someone Else’s Business A graduate enters financial services wanting to become a financial planner. They want to help people understand money, make better decisions and build a life around what matters. The industry offers them something apparently reassuring: A salary. Training. Professional qualifications. A career path. Perhaps, … Continue reading The Salary Trap: What Is a Graduate Really Signing Up For in an AUM Advice Firm? →

Same Expertise. Different Price.

Same Expertise. Different Price. The Academy of Life Planning has launched a new Cost Comparison Calculator to show what happens when the same level of professional expertise is priced in two very different ways. A Chartered Financial Planner can work in two fundamentally different models. As a conventional financial adviser, they may charge an ongoing … Continue reading Same Expertise. Different Price. →

Do You Understand the Business Model Behind Your SJP Advice?

A clarity check for more than one million St. James’s Place clients Your adviser may know your family, your ambitions and your worries. They may have helped you through retirement, bereavement, a business sale or a difficult investment decision. You may trust them—and that trust may be well deserved. But there is another question worth … Continue reading Do You Understand the Business Model Behind Your SJP Advice? →

From Registered Life Planner to Total Wealth Planner

Fifteen years ago, I completed the Registered Life Planner pathway with the Kinder Institute. It changed the way I listened, the way I planned and the way I understood the relationship between money and life. Today, I am a Total Wealth Planner. That journey was not a rejection of life planning. It was the next … Continue reading From Registered Life Planner to Total Wealth Planner →

The FCA Is Shutting Down Investment Scams. But What Happens Before You Invest?

2,329 FCA Scam Warnings... But Would You Spot the Next One? The Financial Conduct Authority has published its latest Annual Report, highlighting a significant crackdown on investment crime. During the past year alone, the regulator issued more than 2,300 warnings about unauthorised or potentially fraudulent firms, secured criminal convictions for insider dealing and money laundering, … Continue reading The FCA Is Shutting Down Investment Scams. But What Happens Before You Invest? →